The Artists Exodus Due to AI Frustrates Me

The evolution of generative AI since the peak of the pandemic days has been astonishing. I remember playing around with the earlier models thinking how fun of a little toy it was despite being very bad at creating pictures. Now, everybody feels like it's a threat to their livelihood. I get it, its current capabilities are shocking!

When fiddling around with the technology more recently to see how useful it can be in the process, it's clear to me that while it may eliminate several jobs, it cannot replace real human artists ever, even in the not-so-far future when it becomes even more competent at generating images. Creative decisions are things that the computer simply cannot do, at least not well.

Besides, there's no guarantee that new types of jobs will arise due to the existence of AI, jobs that might be less laborious and tedious and more creatively fulfilling. That, however, is pure speculation. You may even call it a dream. That is not the point of this post though. I am writing this as I find myself frustrated that as we enter a new era of not just the art world but of humanity as a whole, we're handling this transition with panic and emotional outbursts that lead to unrealistic goals and a lot of time waste.

The Latest Mass Migration

Recently, with the latest announcement from Meta of using user-generated content to train their AI models, the art community finds itself once again desperately running to the latest AI-safe small social media just like villagers escape their hometown when the bandits are attacking. The platform of choice this time is Cara.

The biggest issue with AI tools today is how they train their models. Scraping platforms with machine-learning algorithms that will enable generative AI programs to create pictures just like the ones we artists create without seeing a single penny from it is morally despicable, to say the least. Especially considering how invasive it is to our privacy as it is more data these big tech companies are collecting from us.

So what's the matter with artists collectively moving to Cara? The matter is that this will simply not work. It's not the first time artists do this migration, and I believe it won't be the last, but it didn't work in the earlier attempts and there's no reason to believe it'll work now.

The thing is: big, influential artists will do just fine on Cara. Their influence has extended beyond their social media profiles, they're respected professionals in the industry and people know them by name. Wherever they go, they just gotta announce they're there and people will follow. The reality is that most people are not in that position, and Cara will be useless to them because of the much smaller and niche user base and the probably-not-as-effective algorithm that allows them to be found by a potential audience.

That is to say that moving over to Cara only benefits those who already have a good following base, and those who don't would simply be starting over at a place where their voice won't be heard. It's only a matter of time before they go back to the old platforms.

It's the same thing as when Twitter was taken over by Elon Musk and everybody started going to BlueSky instead. Sure, I bet some artists still post there and have a following, but the reality is that most ended up abandoning their BlueSky profile and going back to Twitter where their work can actually reach audiences of non-artist consumers. Many people cannot afford to lose that reach they can get from a bigger platform.

I think it's good that Cara exists. After all, it's another platform to share art and it's free from AI scraping... at least for now. It's just that it is not, and should never be seen as a competitor to the likes of Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. It might be a great art gallery, sort of a portfolio that you can link to your main profiles on those big social media websites and that's about it.

Now, the thing that really bothers me the most.

The Panic Induced By Influential Artists

The only reason these exoduss happen every time something AI-related is announced in a social platform is because the ones who panic the most are those artists everybody follows and looks up to.

It's been a normal thing in social media for all these years for several people to mindlessly follow the steps of an influential figure they follow. The same way these followers seek and enjoy anything their favourite artist endorses, they freak out when this same artist starts saying in his Instagram stories that it's the end of times and everybody will be replaced by robots. That's not even an art-community-exclusive thing, it's very much a general occurrence.

That is exactly why I wish these influential artists became more aware of their position in the community and thought a bit more thoroughly and rationally about what they're communicating and the consequences of that. When you reach a certain level of influence online, you gotta start thinking about your responsibility as a communicator.

The truth is that they're inducing panic in a group of people who are not in the same position as they are. It seems like neither the influencers nor the influenced realize that, and it seems to be a bit unfair to me.

I want to be fair in my reasoning and say that while I criticize them, I do understand where these emotions come from. As there are more eyes on them, they become the main targets of training algorithms and prompters. Some people specifically use their names to generate hundreds of pictures in the same style, and it must be devastating to see the computer vomiting a massive load of melty illustrations mimicking their work while they dedicated decades of love, sweat and tears to be the artists they are now, that plus the hours it takes to get just one illustration done. As if that wasn't enough, the AI-bros just laugh at their faces afterwards.

I could attribute many things to the panic-inducing behaviour. One I just described. Others would be pure speculation of mine and I find it's best if I keep them for myself. That's not the point I am trying to make though. What I am going to do with all of this is this: I wish that the artists who are highly influential in the community stopped having emotional outbursts, panicking and falling into despair with the new age of AI and took a more conversational, productive approach that wouldn't freak out the smaller artists and could lead to more productive solutions that actually work.

I've seen a number of big artists taking this approach, and I am glad that they do.

The New Era Of Humanity

Some people are still in denial about this and I am afraid I have to break it to you: we're walking into a new era of humanity. An era of advanced technology that will require considerable changes to our own way of life. AI is part of it, and there is no way back. It seems to me that many artists are still trying to reverse the progress of AI almost like trying to send a baby back to the mother's womb. However, you and I know that once a baby is born, you can't send it back. It's part of the world now.

Additionally, while there are several negative points to an era with AI, we need to admit that there are several positive points too. I fear that people will become unable to create, think and make decisions on their own, over-relying on the tools, and handing away the very things that make them human to the computer. I can also see a world where we can focus on things that truly matter and make us feel fulfilled while the laborious, tedious and repetitive stuff gets automated.

The truth is that this is all very new for us and we don't know where it'll go. Naturally, it frightens us! However, we cannot allow ourselves to lose control in the face of fear. We need to recollect ourselves and understand that despite being scared, we have to remain reasonable, have the necessary discussions and come up with solutions that will not reverse the situation but will mitigate the damages it'll bring. The world is changing fast and we're barely catching up. It's in times like this that we need to protect each other.

My Thoughts On The Ethical Issues of AI

As I mentioned earlier, the biggest problem with AI models today is how data is used to train them. It brings a serious and complex discussion on copyright that needs to be had, and regulations definitely need to be put in place to keep the corporations in check, because it doesn't make sense to their business model to do that out of their own kindness. A huge complaint most people rightfully have is how they use the content posted by their vast user base to train these models and how the default option is to opt in. It's scummy, I agree! But if you think about it from the point of view of these corporate executives, it's more profitable for them to have as much data to train their models as possible, so having opt-in as the default means some people will get lazy or forget to opt out, leading to more data in the data bank. They can even use the excuse that you can always opt-out when you complain about it, and while at it they might as well make doing so the most inconvenient thing ever.

Therefore, the use of user data in the training of AI models needs to be regulated. That's not even for the sake of artists, it's for everyone! How would you feel if you knew anybody could generate images of wedding in a model that was trained with a databank that contains photos of your own wedding? It's more than art thievery, it's a serious breach of privacy.

Regulation is the only way to ensure big corporations will not abuse you. They will not do it themselves as they have their own interests and shareholders to please, whether you like it or not. During the process of regulating all this, it's important to have specialists involved, including professional artists, AI developers, businessmen and entrepreneurs, the list goes on.

Not only should the inclusion of user-owned data in data banks for training AI models be consensual, but also compensated. In the case of art, some artists could provide artwork to a data bank and in return receive royalties based on that. At the same time, there could be data banks where artists can voluntarily contribute with royalty-free or public-domain work. Everything about this should be transparent. The artists must know what exactly they're getting into.

Being able to turn the data scraping optional and consensual as well as profitable for the artists would already make for a brighter future in a world with AI. I don't know if it's possible, but imagine earning royalties from allowing AI models to train with your illustrations, especially if you can select the ones that can and cannot be trained on. It'd also benefit smaller companies like startups and indie game developers to have AI tools trained on data voluntarily donated by the authors, or tools that creators can privately train with their own stuff.

I think the idea is since we cannot get rid of it, let's at least try to make it work in our favour as much as possible. Compromises will have to be made, but as long as we keep the conversation going and fight for the right conditions, I believe we'll have a better future.

Keep bugging the corporations, keep pushing for regulation, but remember to use reason in balance with your emotions and don't let either of them fully take over. Take care! ^^